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Sabena Flight 571
Sabena Flight 571 was a passenger flight from Vienna International Airport in Austria to Tel Aviv-Lod International Airport in Israel operated by Belgium's Sabena Airlines on a Boeing 707. Four Black September Organization terrorists hijacked the plane on 8 May 1972 and held its 90 passengers hostage, demanding their exchange for 315 convicted Palestinian terrorists. However, the two male hijackers were killed and the two females captured when Sayeret Matkal commandos dressed as aircraft technicians in white coveralls stormed the plane and freed the hostages. History On 7 May 1972, Ali Taha Abu Snina, Abed al-Aziz Atrash, Rima Tannous, and Therese Halsa traveled to Vienna with forged Italian passports. Trained in Lebanon with the Palestine Liberation Organization, the four were given handguns, grenades, and suicide vests, but they appeared to be two young couples when they boarded Sabena Flight 571 the next day at Vienna International Airport. After twenty minutes, the four individually went to the plane's restroom and prepared their explosives, and they walked out with a gun in one hand and a grenade in the other, threatening to blow up the plane if their demands were not met. Captain Reginald Levy (who was an English Jewish veteran of World War II and the Berlin Airlift) was taken hostage by the hijackers, and he concealed the fact that his wife was a passenger on the plane. However, he had a conversation with Abu Snina; starting out with Abu Snina saying that Levy was responsible for the hijacking due to the United Kingdom giving the Jews their own country of Israel, but it later turned into a friendly conversation. The two talked about their families, and when Abu Snina told Levy that the conversation made him miss his daughters, Levy told him that he would hopefully be able to see them very soon. The plane was diverted to Lod International Airport in Israel, where the hijackers stated their demands to the Israelis. They wanted to trade the 90 passengers for 315 imprisoned Palestinian terrorists in Israel, and the Israelis stalled in talks as they prepared a response. 16 Sayeret Matkal commandos, including future Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu, dressed as airplane technicians and stormed the plane, killing the two male hijackers. Netanyahu grabbed Halsa's hair, only to find out that it was a wig, and another Israeli soldier butted her in the head with his rifle, accidentally wounding Netanyahu in the process. One passenger was mortally wounded, dying later on; she was the only death among the hostages. Aftermath The two female hijackers were sentenced to life imprisonment, only to be released in November 1983 in a Lebanese Civil War prisoner exchange. The aircraft itself was used by Sabena for five more years, but it was purchased by the Israeli Air Force and used as a spy plane in most of the air force's long-range operations for many more years. Barak, Netanyahu, and Transport Minister Shimon Peres - who conducted the hostage negotiations with the hijackers - would all become Prime Ministers of Israel. Category:Terrorist attacks Category:Aircraft hijackings